Braving the Storm
by Wykett
Summary: Lightning goes on a mission in the middle of a Gran Pulse style, nasty blizzard despite Fang's warnings and things go awry! Rated T for possible language and probably some bloodyness.
1. Chapter 1

**_Weee new story!_ _I apologize in advance for any slow updates. The story is still a WIP, and I'm still gathering up ideas on how it's going to end up. Any suggestions are more than welcome! :)_**

**_As with my other fics, I do not own Final Fantasy 13, or the characters, etc related to it. All of that is property of the lovely Square Enix._**

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This winter was probably one of the worst on Gran Pulse, according to Fang, and Lightning just had to be in the thick of it.

'Figures...' The Lieutenant thought to herself as she peered through the foggy glass of the window on the side of the small aircraft. The blizzard raged outside, covering everything in a violent haze as the aircraft shook and swayed against the harsh winds. The weather had been decent enough to fly in when Lightning and her small squad of three began their mission earlier on in the day. They were on a rescue mission to recover a scouting team from the mountainside. But things had quickly taken a turn for the worse after several hours in. Lightning was beginning to question the integrity of the craft they were in as it rattled against the intense storm they were literally in the middle of. Fang had been right, this was no storm to take lightly.

**_~That Morning~_**

"Fang, I _have_ to go. I have orders, and there are people out there that need help. What do you expect? That I leave them out there to die?" Lightning said as she finished shoving things into a duffel bag on their bed.

"Of course not! But who will be there to save them if something happens to you?" Fang stood a few feet away with her arms crossed over her chest.

"We have a window of clear weather that we are taking advantage of."

"Light, I'm from Gran Pulse, remember? I know how bad this could get! Even 500 years ago there were only a few storms worse than this one. That so called 'window of clear weather' won't last long and it'll just get far worse."

Lightning shrugged on a thick, white jacket over her winter military attire. She sighed and looked over at Fang, seeing the anxiety and worry in her face. The soldier smiled and walked over to her partner. She grabbed Fang's arms and pulled them away from her chest, lacing their fingers together.

"It's dangerous, I know. I know that Fang. But it's what I do and it's often dangerous." She stepped closer and leaned her forehead against Fang's." I do everything in my power to come home safe to you every time I am called out. Please know that."

Fang relaxed her shoulders and nodded slightly, accepting her lover's motivations. She unlaced their fingers and wrapped her arms loosely around Lightning's waist, pulling her body closer to her own as she tilted her head back to look into the soldier's face. "I do." Her expression changed as her lips curved playful smirk. "Just know that if anything ever happens, I'm coming out to get you and keeping you on lock down for months."

Lightning smiled and leaned in. "Fine, I can accept those terms." She brushed her lips softly against Fang's. Both of their minds were put at ease, even if just for the moment.

**_~Back to the Present~_**

A sharp jolt brought Lightning out of her thoughts. She braced herself against a control panel to keep her balance. The aircraft began to rattle and pitch. Alarms started going off as the crew frantically reached for various buttons, knobs and levers to try and regain control of the situation.

"What's going on?" She called out to her squad.

"The engine shut down! We're losing altitude!" One man called from his station.

Lightning's attention was now turned to the cockpit window. Through the thick layer of ice that had accumulated on the glass, she could see the tree line racing closer and closer.

"Everyone brace for impact! We're going down!" Lightning yelled and ran to strap herself down in an empty chair.

Before she could reach it, she was flung away into the wall on the opposite side of the ship. Metal screeched, electrical sparks flew and the ship rolled and pitched violently along with its passengers as the ship went down.

'_Should have listened to Fang…_' Was Lightning's last thought before the aircraft collided into the ground.

Unbearable cold was the first thing that came to mind as Lightning began to ease back into consciousness. Every inch of her body was absolutely freezing, especially the right side of her face. Her eyes opened to find herself lying in face down in the snow. As the rest of her senses began to slowly come around, she became more aware of the ever increasing pain in her left leg. She propped herself up on her forearms and tried to pull her legs up so that she could get to her feet, but was stopped abruptly by a shot of pain engulfing her leg and by something pinning that leg into the ground. She gasped at the sudden sensation and looked over her shoulder to see that one of her legs was pinned under a large piece of twisted metal. Beyond that she could only see what had was left of their ship, which littered the snow in smoldering pieces amongst shattered and broken tree limbs. Fires burned from various unrecognizable pieces of the wreckage. Her crew was nowhere in sight.

The snow storm was still going strong, and she was completely exposed to the harsh elements. Lightning knew that if she was going to even have a chance at survival she needed to free herself, find shelter, and hopefully along the way find a radio or beacon to send for help. She sat up as best as she could and gripped her thigh to her trapped leg. She inhaled and exhaled deeply in an attempt to brace herself for the excruciating pain that was to come, as well as to block out as much of the already present agony in what she was pretty sure was a broken leg. Once she was sure it was going to get no better she began to slowly, forcefully pull her leg out from the debris. The chunk of wreckage was incredibly heavy and bared down hard on her leg, making it extremely difficult and equally as painful to pull it free. Lightning clenched her teeth together to stifle cries of pain and exertion as she struggled to pull. With a heavy thump, she was finally free and the wreckage settled into the snow.

Lightning flopped onto her back, her chest heaving and stars floated in her vision. Once she caught her breath and was sure that she was not going to pass out from the ordeal, she eased into a sitting position so that she could assess the full extent of her injuries.

Her left leg had been mauled from the crash. There was no telling where and how the damage had occurred during the impact, but whatever and however many had come in contact with that limb surely had done quite a number on it. Her pants were shredded from the knee down and blood seeped through several lacerations. Through all of the surface damage she could tell her leg did not look right. There was no doubt in her mind now that her leg was severely broken. Her forehead felt as if it were caked in something other than snow, something sticky. When she reached to touch the skin she was greeted with a sharp prick of pain and red fingertips.

"Another bump on the head…great" Lightning scoffed and rolled her eyes.

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**Restructured the chapters a bit, so if anyone is noticing that this chapter seems a little shorter than before that is because it is. But fear not! Nothing has been cut out, it has just been relocated to chapter 2 ^^**


	2. Chapter 2

She scanned her surrounding looking for anything she could use to tend to her injuries and get moving. A few feet away there was a long slender tree branch that had broken off from a tree during the impact lying on the snow. With some modifications it looked as if it would suffice as a crutch to assist her in moving around. Lightning slowly rolled to her stomach, supporting her weight on her arms and her good leg she began to crawl towards the branch. It was a painful crawl. The short distance felt three times as long given her crippled state. When her fingers finally landed on the wood she dragged it towards her before taking another breather. Reaching behind her she unsheathed and unfolded her gunblade and began slicing off the extra branches and protrusions until it was a single, solid walking stick.

Lightning drove the stick into the snow and sat up on one knee. She closed her eyes, gripped the stick firmly, and began to pull her body up into a standing position. She grimaced at the pain shooting through her leg as she moved. Finally she was able to get to her feet, all of her weight focused between her newly forged walking stick and her good leg.

Now that the soldier was able to stand, she began to limp and hobble through the wreckage in search of materials or signs of life from her crew. Blood trailed behind her in the snow. She picked up things as she went along, scraps of cloth, wire, and even a partial med kit. Carefully setting back down into the snow near some small branches, Lightning set down her supplies. She rummaged through the med kit and retrieved a bottle of antiseptic. Freezing fingers unscrewed the top and poured the contents over the mauled skin of her leg.

"Ah, fuck…"She hissed at the intense stinging sensation, and tried like hell to use her training to focus her mind at the task at hand so that she didn't have time to think about the pain or the frigid temperatures. Luckily the kit contained a large bandage roll that she used to wrap her leg with. Once that task was finished she moved to grabbing a couple of small branches that were just long enough to come up to her thigh. She positioned the two pieces on either side of her leg and used the scrap cloth and wire to fasten it securely to her leg as a makeshift splint. The agony of her broken limb becoming straightened from the tightening of the splint was almost too much to bear. But the soldier pressed on, pushing through, and soon enough it was over.

Lightning allowed herself one more pause to regain her composure once the task of making a splint for her injured appendage was completed. Then, as before, she pulled herself to her feet. Now that she addressed her immediate injuries, no matter how crude, she could now concentrate on searching for survivors or a means of rescue.

She wandered the wreckage for a while. There was not much left of the aircraft aside from smoldering hunks of metal and still no sign of her crew. She did take notice that this was not all of the airship and that it appeared that the front end of the ship was missing.

The thick blanket of snowfall made it difficult to see anything at a distance, but as she moved along she noticed a thick billow of dark smoke further ahead. It had to be the other half of the airship, and if she was really lucky the radio equipment would still be intact.

"I really hope you put in a good word for me to Lady Luck, Fang…" Lightning muttered to herself and continued to move towards the direction of the smoke.

The soldier had only made it about half-way when she stopped suddenly. Roughly 20 feet away were a group of Gorgonopsid, hunched over and tearing apart a body. A body that was wearing the same uniform as her crew. One of the Gorgonopsid had its muzzle buried into the man's chest cavity, while the others tore at the extremities. She could not recognize the man through the blood and mutilation. Lightning slowly reached behind her for her gunblade. She counted only three of the beasts, but she was at a clear disadvantage in her state and in this weather. She wasn't sure that she could slip past them unnoticed and without a fight, but she hoped the same weather that prevented her from noticing them until she was practically on top of them would allow her to pass safely. As her fingers touched its handle one of the Gorgonopsid ripped the crewman's arm off with its powerful jaws, and turned away from the small pack, now facing the Lieutenant. It's black eyes fell upon her and it promptly dropped the severed limb into the snow. The Pulse beast let out a throaty growl, blood and saliva dripped from its massive jaws. The others were soon alerted of her presence and drew their attention to their new meal.

"Shit." Were Lightning's only words as she drew her gunblade.

Lightning flipped her weapon into gun form and began to open fire on the Gorgonopsid charging at her as she clumsily backed away to gain more distance. Bullets peppered the snow, missing the beast by mere inches, until one struck it between the eyes. As its run came to an abrupt stop and it collapsed to the ground, Lightning swung her firing arm to her left to focus on the second Gorgonopsid.

"_Wait. Weren't there three?"_ Before Lightning barely could get that thought out and before she could squeeze the trigger something latched onto her arm.

The third Gorgonopsid had flanked her right side and captured her arm in its massive jaws. It used its strength and her unsteadiness to drag her off of her feet. Lightning could feel its teeth pierce her skin. She let go of her walking stick and brought her left fist down hard into the creature's eye, thankful that her gloves came with the hard steel-knuckle addition. She pummeled at its weak spot until it released its grip on her forearm. Lightning didn't spare a single second, she focused her weapon at the Gorgonopsid's head and fired two clean shots. She whipped her weapon around as the third and final Gorgonopsid was upon her.

It leaped on top of her, massive paws on either side of her body and its jaws mere inches from her throat. She shoved the broad side of the gun into the Gorgonopsid's mouth to prevent its dripping teeth from reaching their target. The soldier swiftly kicked the Gorgonopsid's soft and sensitive underbelly with her steel-toed boots. The Pulse beast pulled its head back to howl in pain and anger, but Lightning took no time to smash her gun into its face and roll away as it stumbled back.

She and beast locked eyes as they both steadied themselves. Lightning slowly got to her feet, leaning heavily on her good leg. She was covered in a mix of powdery snow and blood, her brilliant blue eyes were filled with a steely determination and anger. This whole mission was a disaster from the beginning and had been followed by nothing but one bad thing after another. Frankly, Lightning was sick of it. Her mind was set. She was going to defeat this beast. She was going to find a radio. She was going to get the hell out of this place and be back home with Fang. She was ready to end this.

With these simple thoughts in mind, she flicked her wrist and her gun unfolded into its sleek sword form.

"Come on then!" She snarled at the Gorgonopsid.

As if on cue, the creature sprinted at the soldier. It lunged at her, but Lightning still had some of her namesake's reflexes even in her condition. She moved to the side and spun around, bringing her blade down hard as the Gorgonopsid moved past. Her blade made contact with its neck just at the base of its skull, she could feel it slice through skin, muscle and bone before she ripped it free and prepared for another attack. Fortunately for her, she did not need to. Her strike had nearly decapitated the Gorgonopsid and it collapsed on its side in a pool of its own blood.

Lightning collapsed into the snow, panting heavily and overwhelmed with the pain that was searing through her entire body. Darkness began to encroach on her vision and she felt as though she had no energy left to move her limbs. Her mind started to drift and it became hard to gather her thoughts. Then she thought about Fang, and what they had spoke about that morning. She couldn't give in now, she couldn't let Fang down. Lightning had told her she would do anything in her power to return to her and dammit all she was going to give it her everything until her last dying breath.

She pushed herself to her feet and hobbled over to her improvised walking stick.

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**Ermahgerd! Update! I know it's a bit short, and you may find some stuff from Chapter 1 (restructured the chapters a bit), but I really wanted to give you guys an update to this story. I'm sorry for the cliffhanger! I still need a little more time to work out the details in the upcoming scene and the rest of the fic. Enjoy!**

***Update 9/24/2012* Added a bit more to this chapter that I wrote up earlier today, so there wasn't as bad of a cliffhanger as there was :P**

**Also, thank you all for the lovely reviews and the favs! I heart you all!**


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